


The Bloofer Lady

by sweetcarolanne



Category: Dracula - Bram Stoker
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bittersweet, Blood Drinking, F/F, Romance, Spells & Enchantments, Vampires, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-12 00:58:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19218388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/pseuds/sweetcarolanne
Summary: "Lucy would never be evil to Mina. She was an invalid to be cared for, stricken with a dreadful illness through no fault of her own and who needed to be guarded from those who could not understand and would always seek to destroy her..."





	The Bloofer Lady

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WildandWhirling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildandWhirling/gifts).



> Dear recipient, I hope you enjoy this story. I have always loved this pairing and was excited to have a chance to write it at long last! <3
> 
> Many thanks to my anonymous beta.

It did not take Mina long to find her beloved, for something stronger than fear was guiding her to Lucy’s side. A protectiveness fiercer than that of a lioness, and a tenderness that had formed like scar tissue to heal the wounds of their broken girlhood dreams.

“Not another one, dear! I told you, leave the little ones alone… let him go!” Mina cried into the darkness as at last she saw the slender white-clad form she had been looking for, illuminated like a ghost by the moonlight against the looming shapes of trees, and cradling a small bundle that seemed hardly bigger than a doll.

Lucy was standing at the edge of the forest, with yet another child in her arms. No sharp teeth marks stood out yet against the boy’s pale skin, and not even a bruise marred its perfection. Lucy touched her lips to the infant’s temple with a butterfly kiss before turning to Mina with a dreamy smile.

The child Lucy held showed no terror as he looked from Lucy to Mina, his eyes wide with innocent wonder. His face was like that of a marble angel, with features so delicate that he scarcely seemed to be a child of flesh and bone at all, and his short baby ringlets were the silver-blond hue of moonbeams. Tiny fingers brushed against the ruffled neckline of Lucy’s nightgown, as if to ascertain that the “Bloofer Lady”, now a part of local folklore for so many years, was really there and not merely one of his own nightly phantasms. 

Mina shook her head as the child turned his face away from Lucy’s and held out his arms to her. She beckoned to Lucy and took one slim, cold hand in her own warm one while Lucy’s other arm still balanced the little boy.

A shiver ran up Mina’s spine at the chill of Lucy’s touch, icy despite the heat of the summer night. How long had it been since her beloved one had fed? She dared not ask, fearing that any reminder of Lucy’s endless hunger would turn the vampire’s attention back towards the child.

Mina followed Lucy as she glided, her feet seeming almost not to touch the ground, back towards the nearest village and a dilapidated house on the outskirts of the tiny settlement. She watched as Lucy placed the boy into a rickety cot and covered him with the well-worn blanket that lay beside it, and then slipped her hand back into Lucy’s again, leading her out again into the moonlit night.

Back in the small cottage near the woods which was their home now, Lucy sat in a chair by the window and watched the stars shimmer, her eyes glittering from the still ravenous blood-lust within her and her body still and rigid.

Mina had been outside sprinkling salt in a circle around the little house as she did every night and morning before she had noticed that Lucy was no longer at home. Crosses and garlic would sicken poor Lucy, so Mina had swallowed her pride and sought the advice of someone who knew the old ways and other methods of banishing evil from their dwelling-place. The aged woman who lived even deeper in the forest than she and Lucy did was rumoured to be a witch by superstitious villagers, but she had shown more compassion to Mina’s strange requests than a minister or priest ever would.

Lucy would never be evil to Mina. She was an invalid to be cared for, stricken with a dreadful illness through no fault of her own and who needed to be guarded from those who could not understand and would always seek to destroy her, and who would also want to put an end to Mina for shielding Lucy. Here in self-imposed exile they would have to stay for as long as Mina could protect the one she loved above all else. She could not marry Jonathan Harker now, any more than Lucy could return and wed Arthur Holmwood. Lucy’s devastating change had shown Mina beyond all doubt that she could not bear to lose her.

It was better for them both to live as old maids and outcasts (though Lucy would never truly grow old), turning to the witch of the woods for succour, than for Lucy to be killed by men who once claimed to love her.

Kneeling by the side of Lucy’s chair, Mina again laced her fingers through the long and slender ones of her beloved. She looked up into Lucy’s pallid face and noted with a pang in her heart the dark shadows beneath the beautiful bright eyes and the glint of ferocious craving within them.

“I would not have killed that child,” Lucy whispered, giving Mina’s hands an affectionate squeeze and making Mina wince at their coldness. “You know I only take a few sips, not even enough to weaken them, and I always return them to their families alive. It is only _he_ who drains the living to the brink of death. It is only _he_ who is without mercy and without a heart. Dear Mina, please believe that I speak the truth! You must believe me!”

Mina tried to avert her gaze, but Lucy seemed to have some hypnotic hold over her. She brought Lucy’s hands to her lips and tried in vain to kiss warmth into them.

“Dearest, I do believe you,” she whispered at last. “But the parents of those children will not, once they find out that you are not a figment of young imaginations. If you continue to prey on their little ones, they will seek you out, my love, and they will kill you, and that will, in turn, be the death of me.”

She shifted position and laid her head on Lucy’s lap, striving in vain to banish her worries and to forget the unspoken need hanging in the air between them like a cloud. Lucy’s fingers carded through her hair, their touch gentle as always but failing to relax her.

Mina knew what Lucy ached for but was too sweet and loving to demand.

With a sigh, Mina raised herself up on her knees and loosened her clothing, and Lucy, with a small, strangled-sounding moan, sat bolt upright and pulled Mina into her arms, too famished to be gentle or restrain herself from sinking needle-sharp teeth into the soft skin of Mina’s throat.

There was no pain except for the initial bite, and Lucy took only a few small sips as she had claimed she did with the children she abducted. Yet Mina felt faint with revulsion when the sated Lucy at last drew back; rising to unsteady feet, she manage to stagger to her bed and collapse, burying her face in the pillow to stifle sobs that threatened at any moment to convulse her.

As the clock struck midnight and Lucy rested, Mina was able to get up from the bed and seat herself where Lucy had sat before, weaving garlands of dried herbs to hang in the windows. Her lips moved in prayer, although she did not invoke the Christian God with her words. She recited what the wise woman of the forest had told her to say, and she hoped that this supplication to the universe would be enough to keep her and her beloved safe.

_“Only those of love and light are welcome here. All those who are not of love and light are banished from our door. All those with evil intent, be gone!”_

She kept close watch on the shadows outside, fearing not that the Count would emerge from their enshrouding darkness, but dreading the sight of those she and Lucy had once loved lurking there.


End file.
